The Steven Spielberg movie, Avatar, tells the story of Jake Sully, a former marine, who is paralyzed from the waist down. Jake is sent on a mission to an alien planet where he becomes connected to a hybrid human-alien life form known as an Avatar and is immersed into the world of Na’vi. Jake enters the Na’vi world and is ordered to gather information on gathering places as well as other information for his commanding officers. At first, Jake does as he is told because he is held to the promise that his commanders will restore his mobility if he executes his mission. However, after he enters the world, he quickly falls in love with a Na’vi woman and begins to question the integrity of his mission. Jake then figures out that his mission may be something more sinister than he had previously been aware. The human forces are planning on taking the Na’vi people’s resources by force. The humans begin to use Jake’s information to coordinate attacks on the Na’vi. Jake slowly begins to synthesize with the Na’vi people and ends up fighting for them.
The movie Avatar offers a unique perspective into how humans might act in an encounter with an alien society. In many ways, The Black Panther is very similar to the plot in Avatar. In both movies, a fictional society comes into contact with a human society that is trying to take advantage of them in some way. In Avatar, humans are after natural resources on the Na’vi planet much like humans want vibranium in The Black Panther. Both societies are left to defend themselves from an enemy who is driven by greed.
Though the human society is fictional in both films, ethical dilemmas are present in both. These screenplays are designed to draw attention to ethical issues that stem from the abuse of other cultures. The idea of taking advantage of a culture for one’s own gain has long been a hotbed for debate as it is unfortunately all too common in today’s world. Much like the movies, cultures around the world are robbed of riches and taken advantage of simply because they can’t defend themselves. This mostly stems from the early ideas of colonialism where African tribes were forced into labor and kept under tight control as colonists searched for Africa’s vast riches of gold and resources. Today, an excellent example of this mistreatment are blood diamonds Blood diamonds are a result of forced labor and are often not the true property of the one selling it. Overall, I believe Avatar was intended to cast a light on the idea that societies are often mistreated and when that society is small enough or far away enough, people turn the other way.
Great Job! I really enjoyed this post and found it to be informative and interesting. I enjoyed the discussion of ethical dilemmas, I believe this would go well in our class and mix in well with our material throughout the year.